“To cause the nous to abide outside the body itself,1 so as there to chance upon noetic spectacles, is the root and source of the very worst of Hellenic [pagan] errors and of all heresies, an invention of demons, an instruction engendering folly and an offspring of senselessness…”2

With these words, St Gregory Palamas censures all those who accept or teach about “out of body experiences.”

We have read a considerable number of such teachings recently, both in popular, pseudo-scientific, occult and religious sources, and note that both the notion of “out of body experiences” and the conclusions reached from them by various authors, philosophers and theologians, are related either directly or indirectly to pagan mystery cults and to Hinduism, all of which are demonic religions.